What is Pitch in Music

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What Is Pitch in Music? - Denition, Lesson & QuizSupplemental Lesson

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Instructor: Alisha Nypaver

Alisha is a college music educator specializing in historic and world music studies.

This lesson will explore the concept of musical pitch, which is generally thought of as the'highness' or 'lowness' of a sound. Together with amplitude, duration, and tone color,pitch is one of the four basic elements of all musical sounds.

We also recommend watching Binary Form in Music: Denition, Examples & Quiz(/academy/lesson/binary-form-in-music-denition-examples-quiz.html) and TheRedeemers: Denition, Lesson & Quiz (/academy/lesson/the-redeemers.html)

What Is Pitch?Pitch is the quality that allows us to classify a sound as relatively 'high' or 'low.' Pitch isdetermined by the frequency of sound wave vibrations. However, frequency is a precisescientic unit of measurement; while pitch, although dened by its frequency, also has asubjective component which takes into account the relative placement of the frequencywithin the context of an established tuning system and in relation to other frequencies.

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Oscillation patterns of sound waves. The faster the sound wavetravels, the closer together the peaks of each wave are and thehigher the pitch. In this example, red represents the lowest-pitched sound waves and purple represents the highest-pitchedsound waves.

Regular oscillation pattern of a denite pitch sound wave

FrequencySound is created by vibrations. If you strum a string on a guitar, the motion of your handagainst the string will set the string in motion, causing it to vibrate. This vibration createsa musical sound which, if uninterrupted, will continue until the vibration of the stringeventually stops and the sound fades away. If, however, you strum the guitar andimmediately put your hand on the string to stop its vibration, the sound also stopsimmediately. That sound that you hear is traveling through the air in regular waves,generated by the movement of the vibrating object (in this case, the guitar string).

The uctuation of these waves, called oscillations, can be measured by the number ofwave cycles per second. It is this measurement that is referred to as the frequency of thesound. Frequency is quantied using a unit of measurement known as hertz(abbreviated Hz), which denes the number of repeating cycles per second. For example,if an event happens once per second, it will have a hertz number of 1. Therefore, thefaster the oscillations of the sound waves, the higher the hertz number, and the higherthe pitch.

In general, smaller vibrating objectsproduce higher pitches, and biggervibrating objects produce lower pitches.

Denite Pitch: TonesA denite pitch is a musical sound thathas a steady and measurable frequencyand can be assigned a hertz number. Thesound waves of denite pitches move in arepetitive and evenly-paced pattern with aconstant distance between the peaks and valleys of each wave.

Hertz numbers are useful because theyprovide the basis for a universal tuningsystem. Using hertz numbers as ameasurement, a note on a piano in Chinaand a note on a piano in Chicago can bothbe tuned to precisely the same frequency.Before scientists were able to measure

sound waves, the tuning of musical instruments varied widely from one region to thenext. Instruments were mainly tuned to each other, not to an absolute standard.

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Piano keyboard showing the letter names of the 12 tones in theoctave and hertz numbers of the corresponding frequencies.

Notice how the hertz number of the A farthest to the right isdouble that of the A farthest to the left.

Today, the universal tuning standard for most musical instruments is a denite pitchwith a hertz number of 440. This means that the vibrations of that pitch are oscillating at440 cycles per second, or 440 Hz. In music, denite pitches such as this are called tones.Tones form the basis of most musical scale systems. Although there are thousands offrequencies in the audible sound spectrum, many musical notation systems, includingthe western system, use denite pitches that are determined based on a musical ratiocalled the octave.

An octave is the distance between two tones, one of which has a hertz number that isdouble the frequency of the other. For example, if we take 440 Hz and double thefrequency, we get a tone with a hertz number of 880. This 2:1 ratio denes the octave.The second tone, which is the octave of the rst tone, is created by faster vibrations andgenerates a higher pitch than the one vibrating at 440 cycles per second. The two tonesin an octave sound very similar. In fact, when they are played at the same time, theyblend together, which can make it dicult for an untrained musician to recognize themas two distinct tones rather than the same pitch, despite the fact that one is vibratingtwice as fast.

Western music theorists have divided the octave into twelve denite pitches of relativelyequal distance. Letter names from A-G are assigned to seven of these pitches fornotation purposes with notes that are an octave apart sharing the same letter name toindicate the special relationship between their frequencies. The remaining ve pitchesare dened by modifying the letter names of pitches A - G by adding the word 'sharp' toindicate a higher pitch (written as a # sign) and 'at' to indicate a lower pitch (written as'b'). This system results in some overlap, with certain pitches being the raised form ofone pitch and the lowered form of another. For instance, the pitch that lies between Dand E can be written as 'D-sharp' or 'E-at.'

When these pitches are written on a sheetof music, they are arranged on a musicalsta, which is a series of lines and spacesthat indicate to performers which pitchshould be played. The keyboard note letternames and corresponding hertz numbersshown above can be seen in notated formon the sta below. In general, the higher anote is positioned on the page, the higherthe corresponding pitch.



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